The shift could end some conservation efforts, though probably not the international ban on commercial hunts.
By Bruce Wallace and Carol J. Williams, Times Staff Writers
June 16, 2006

TOKYO — After a two-decade campaign, Japan appears to have mustered enough allies to win a majority on the International Whaling Commission, a victory anti-whaling activists fear would bring back the sea slaughter that once drove many species to the brink of extinction.

Since 1986, when the commission banned commercial whaling, Tokyo has risked international condemnation in its quest to restore the hunt — an activity it describes as integral to its culture.

Now Japan's intense lobbying of small African, Pacific and Caribbean countries is likely to allow it to prevail at the commission's annual meeting, which opens today in the West Indian nation of St. Kitts and Nevis.

Japan's immediate goal is to strike conservation from the commission's agenda and authorize secret ballots on future votes.

Conservationists charge that secret voting would allow countries allegedly paid off by Japan to vote in favor of whale hunting in the future while escaping international censure.

[Australia's environment minister, Ian Campbell, at the forefront of the anti-hunt forces, has called the St. Kitts gathering "crunch time for the survival of the whales" and threatened small South Pacific nations that have joined the commission with a tourism boycott if they dare vote with Japan.

But some observers, including U.S. officials, question whether a Japanese victory would really have a drastic effect on whale populations. Ending the ban would require a 75% vote by the commission's members, something Japan and its allies remain far short of.

Perhaps of equal significance, they note, Japanese demand for whale meat has all but collapsed, despite government campaigns to promote it. Most Japanese say they just aren't interested in the chewy, blood-red steaks.

Opinion is divided in Japan when it comes to the taste of whale meat.

Delicious, if a bit pricey, say the businessmen who dine on pieces of the animal fat in Tokyo's specialty restaurants, while whale meat lovers in coastal villages argue that the best bits are broiled and salted and washed down with liquor.

But many adults cringe at memories of the slabs they were forced to eat as children in postwar Japan, when protein-rich foods were rare and whale was a staple of school lunches.

The three commercial whaling nations — Japan, Norway and Iceland — have never actually stopped hunting.

They kill whales under rules that allow a quota for research purposes. About 2,300 of the animals will be killed this year, roughly 800 by Japanese whalers.

Meat from that ostensibly scientific hunt ends up in Japanese supermarkets and, amid pressure from the Japanese government, increasingly on school menus and in family-style restaurant chains.

Despite the government's efforts, "the whale meat diet is becoming more and more obsolete in Japan," said Junko Sakuma, an anti-whaling activist and author of a report that used statistics from Japan's fisheries agency to show that whale meat was piling up unsold in industrial freezers.

Even the recent health scare over mad cow disease that resulted in a ban on North American beef failed to push Japanese consumers to eat more whale meat, figures show.

That lack of demand has not consoled conservationists, who along with opponents have gathered in the St. Kitts capital, Basseterre, for the five-day culmination of months of scientific debate and diplomatic wrestling.

Conservationists suffered a blow this week when the Greenpeace protest vessel Arctic Sunrise was denied entry into Basseterre Bay.

National Security Minister Dwyer Astaphan would say only that the decision was made by the Cabinet.

Greenpeace activist John Bowler disparaged the action, as well as the expected whaling commission move to hold secret ballots.

Yeah, Japanese culture relies heavily on whaling. I mean, think of the things they produce now. Electronics, motor vehicles, lady-boys...
Maybe we should bring back bear-baiting and wolf-hunting as a formerly large part of English culture?
I can't think of very many reasons to kill whales, what have they got that we need? We don't need the oil for lamps any more (except Dave who needs it on Arran to power his new broadband), I think perfumes have moved on a bit from ambergris, and I can't think of anything I'd be less happy to eat. (Actually I can think of many things, but you get my drift.)
BMB
xx

To be fair, the Japanese are only doing now what the rest of the world did in the first place - lots of countries with no specific interest either way in the whaling issue were lobbied very hard by the anti-whaling countries and NGOs in the 70s resulting in the current moratorium.

Was nice to see though that even with their newfound allies they still couldn't force the vote.